Roadside Picnic - The Zone

Chambers Fine Art is pleased to present ROADSIDE PICNIC, a group exhibition of Chinese artists living in New York, curated by Hiroshi Sunairi and Yixin (Sam) Gong.

The title of the exhibition is taken from a short science fiction novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in 1971. The 1979 art film "Stalker," directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, is loosely based on the novel, with a screenplay written by the Strugatsky brothers. Set in the indefinite future, the "Stalker” works as a guide who leads people through the "Zone", an area in which the normal laws of reality do not apply. Touching upon themes of displacement and changing realities, the curators will present the work of 10 artists: Chang Yuchen, Lang Zhang, Miranda Fengyuan Zhang, Tan Tian, Tiger Chengliang Cai, Tingying Ma (in collaboration with Tina Wang and Kang Kang), Wang Tuo, Yi Xin Tong, Wei Xiaoguang, and Weigang Song.

Compared to the practices of Chinese artists represented in much of the current Western art scene, these artists, educated in the United States, create works that defy the ‘exoticization’ of their Chinese-ness. Their use of diverse art mediums, including painting, video, film, installation, performance, dance, drawing, and sculpture are fused with personal, idiosyncratic, theoretical, formal, satirical, poetic and ineffable contents.

“As the title implies, ROADSIDE PICNIC is the food meant to be eaten on an excursion by the side of a road. Where does this road lead to within the New York art world, to a maturity of style and content back in China, or toward becoming the leading voices of contemporary discourse?  ROADSIDE PICNIC is a celebration of the state in flux as our global world rattles anxiously and attentively”.

- Hiroshi Sunairi, Stalkert and Yixin (Sam) Gong, Bubble B.

About the curators:

Hiroshi Sunairi was born in Hiroshima in 1972.  Dealing with issues of collective memory and the public sphere, he creates sculpture/installation and cinema on various contents. 
Sunairi has exhibited internationally, and he teaches in the Art Department at New York University.

Yixin (Sam) Gong was born and raised in Xiamen, China, and is a curator and researcher based in New York City. He has worked on several non-profit institutions in China and Southeast Asia. Gong studies Art History at Rutgers University.